Don Ho

All Music Guide:

Don Ho employed his talents as a middle-of-the-road pop singer and musical ambassador for Hawaii to launch a mainland career that included half a dozen chart albums, numerous television appearances, and engagements at top venues starting in the mid-'60s. He was born in Kakaako, a small neighborhood in Honolulu on the island of Oahu in Hawaii and grew up in the city of Kaneohe, also on Oahu. After a stint in the Air Force, he took over a cocktail lounge in Kaneohe named Honey's, after his mother. There, he started a band, eventually called the Aliis, with himself as singer and organist. In 1962, he moved to the Oahu resort district of Waikiki, where he played in a nightclub called Duke's. There he began to come to the attention of the mainland entertainment business. He was signed to Reprise Records, which released his debut album, Don Ho Show, in 1965. In 1966, he made his debut at the Coconut Grove in Los Angeles, an engagement followed by others at such high-profile locations as the Sands in Las Vegas, Harrah's at Lake Tahoe, the Palmer House in Chicago, and the Americana Hotel's Royal Box in New York. He also began turning up as a guest on network TV talk shows. Meanwhile, his records began to sell. His second album, a live collection called Don Ho -- Again!, reached the charts in March 1966, but it was the release of "Tiny Bubbles" that fall which really broke him in record stores. The single placed in the pop and the easy listening charts, stimulating sales of a Tiny Bubbles LP that made the Top 20 and stayed in the charts nearly a year.

Ho continued to cultivate television, appearing as himself on such sitcoms as Batman and I Dream of Jeannie. His next album, another live collection, East Coast/West Coast, reached the charts but was only a modest seller. Subsequent records didn't do as well, but another live LP, Suck 'em Up (the title referring to his on-stage exhortation to the audience to drink heartily), gave him his fourth chart album in the spring of 1969. That summer, he co-hosted the Kraft Music Hall TV variety series with Sandler & Young, which increased his exposure and helped put Don Ho -- Greatest Hits! and The Don Ho TV Show onto the charts.

Ho's record sales declined after the late '60s, but he continued to perform extensively and appeared on television, notably on episodes of The Brady Bunch, Charlie's Angels, and The Fall Guy. From October 1976 to March 1977, he hosted a half-hour daytime variety series, The Don Ho Show, broadcast over ABC-TV. By the '90s, he had launched his own label, Honey Records, to release his recordings and others by island favorites. He continued to make occasional TV appearances, and in 1996 had a small part in the film Joe's Apartment. He performed regularly at his own club in Hawaii. Hoku, the seventh of his ten children, launched a singing career in 2000 with her song "Another Dumb Blonde," which was used in the movie Snow Day and became a Top 40 hit, followed by the release of her debut album, Hoku.

Wikipedia:

Donald Tai Loy "Don" Ho (simplified Chinese: 何大来; traditional Chinese: 何大來; pinyin: Hé Dàlái; August 13, 1930 – April 14, 2007) was a Hawaiian and traditional pop musician, singer and entertainer.

Life and career

Ho, of Chinese, Hawaiian, Portuguese, Dutch, and German descent, was born in the small Honolulu neighborhood of Kakaʻako, but he grew up in Kāneʻohe on the windward side of the island of ʻahu. He was a graduate of the Kamehameha Schools in 1949 and he attended Springfield College on a football scholarship in 1950, but returned home to earn a bachelor's degree in sociology at University of Hawai'i in 1953. In 1954 Ho entered the United States Air Force doing his basic training at Keesler AFB, Mississippi and spent time flying fighter jets in both Texas and Hawaii. Transferred to Hamilton AFB, California he went to the local town of Concord and bought an electronic keyboard from a music store, and recalls, "That's when it all started."

Don married his high school sweetheart, Melvamay Kolokea Wong, on November 21, 1951. She was the mother to the first six of his children. Ho was married for 48 years until his wife's death on June 8, 1999. While in the military, Ho traveled from state to state with his young family until he was called home to help his mother Honey Ho, with the family bar business called Honey's.

Ho left the United States Air Force in 1959 due to his mother's illness and began singing at his mother's club in Kaneohe. Honey's became a hotspot for the local entertainment and the growing customers from the Kaneohe Marine Base servicemen. Ho always honored the military remembering his own years of military service. In 1963, he moved the Kāneʻohe Honey's to Waikīkī. After much success, and little room to grow, promoter Kimo Wilder McVay sought Don to play at a night club called Duke's owned by Duke Kahanamoku, where he caught the attention of record company officials.

Ho was originally signed to Reprise Records. Ho released his debut album, Don Ho Show, in 1965 and began to play high profile locations in Las Vegas, Lake Tahoe, and New York City. In 1966 he released his second album, a live compilation called Don Ho — Again!, which charted in the early part of that year. In the fall of 1966, Ho released his most famous song, "Tiny Bubbles", which charted on both the pop (#8 Billboard) and easy listening charts and caused the subsequent Tiny Bubbles LP to remain in the album Top 20 for almost a year. Another song associated with Don was "Pearly Shells". From 1964 to 1969, Don's backing group was The Aliis: Al Akana, Rudy Aquino, Benny Chong, Manny Lagodlagod and Joe Mundo.

In his stage show, Ho would make jokes about being sent in the mid-1950s to Keesler Air Force Base, Mississippi and being Hawaiian. Don Ho enjoyed asking for a show of hands of veterans of World War II. He would ask for all the Pearl Harbor survivors to stand. He would tell the men from the European Theatre, "you got your glory in the movies" and they could watch. The veterans of the Pacific Theatre were invited on stage to join the hula dancers.

Guest appearances on television shows such as I Dream of Jeannie, The Brady Bunch, Sanford and Son, Batman, Charlie's Angels, McCloud, and Fantasy Island soon followed. Although his album sales peaked in the late 1960s, he was able to land a television series on ABC from October 1976 to March 1977 with the Don Ho Show variety program which aired on weekday mornings (which by coincidence replaced Hot Seat and was replaced by Second Chance, both game shows hosted by Jim Peck).

All together, Ho had ten children. His children often worked alongside with him either on stage, behind the stage or with his business throughout his career. He loved to work with his children teaching them the entertainment business. His daughter, Hoku, performed with her father in his Waikīkī show and in 2000 went on to become a nationally known recording artist in her own right. In 2005 he sang a song that was used as the opening theme to the direct-to-video and DVD movie Aloha, Scooby-Doo!.

Illness

Ho lived at his Diamond Head residence, raising his young family with their mothers. It was also where his business office was located. In 1995 at the age of 65, Ho's health began declining which began with a mild stroke. By 2002, he had developed an incurable heart condition. Despite his health, Ho was always hopeful, and resilient to find a solution. He also continued his nightly performances.

Ho was diagnosed with cardiomyopathy in 2005 and had a pacemaker implanted. He contacted a biotechnology company specializing in treating heart conditions with adult stem cells working in conjunction with Dr. Shoa, cardiac surgeon and pioneer of the use of adult stem cells for heart disease. On December 6, 2005, Ho had his own blood-derived stem cells injected into his heart by Amit Patel and his fellow surgeons in Thailand. The treatment went without incident. Later in the month, Ho said, "I'm feeling much better and I'm so happy I came up here to do it."

Around September 12, 2006, Ho married Haumea Hebenstreit, who was a production assistant for his show at the Waikīkī Beachcomber. A few days later Ho went into cardiac arrest. Although he had a new pacemaker installed on September 16, 2006, Ho died in Waikīkī from heart failure on April 14, 2007.

Since Ho's death, his estate has been in limbo because of numerous management conflicts and legal changes that transpired while he was struggling with his mental and physical health.